A politician’s "spur of the moment" idea for Comic Relief left her more than £14,000 out of pocket after promising £1 for every retweet she received on Twitter.

Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart, who once spent Red Nose Day dressed as a chicken when she was a teacher, has donated £14,268 to the charity after thousands of people retweeted her post on the social networking site.

Although she had always planned to write a cheque for Comic Relief, the Labour MP said she had the sum of £10,000 in mind, and admitted she was "a bit" worried as the number of retweets steadily increased.